GHS football to open practice Monday at Cardinal Stadium

Updated 7:16 pm, Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Greenwich High School's athletic field and bleachers at Cardinal Stadium as seen from West Putnam Avenue on May 27, 2011.

Greenwich High School's athletic field and bleachers at Cardinal Stadium as seen from West Putnam Avenue on May 27, 2011.

Photo: File Photo

GHS football to open practice Monday at Cardinal Stadium

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The Greenwich High School football team, in a holding pattern for weeks over the start of fall practice in the wake of the discovery of contaminants around the athletic complex, has learned that Cardinal Stadium will be open Monday.

An email from the parents of the team's captains has been sent to the rest of the team notifying them that players should report to the high school's football field at 5:30 p.m. The opening practice is scheduled to end at 7:30 p.m.

"Thank you for your patience and get ready for some football!!" the email from the captains' parents concluded.

It's been a long wait filled with uncertainty for the team, starting when all seven of the school's athletic fields were closed several weeks ago after contaminants were unearthed during construction and soil testing for the $29 million auditorium and music instruction space project. Contaminated soil has been found at some of the grass fields in the athletic complex, as well as in surrounding areas.

No timetable has been given for the district's re-opening of the rest of the fields.

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As the start of classes looms on Sept. 1 -- a start date that schools officials have said is not in danger of being delayed -- football players, parents and coaches aren't the only members of the GHS community who have had to contend with inconveniences.

Incoming seniors learned this past week that their parking privileges will be temporarily suspended to start the academic year until contaminated dirt piles are removed from a campus lot. Parking at the school will be limited to staff only during the cleanup, which school officials estimated could take three to four weeks, though no firm timetable has been set.

Work begun earlier this summer on the auditorium project was stopped several weeks ago after the contaminated soil was discovered by construction workers. Elevated readings of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, lead, arsenic, barium and petroleum hydrocarbon turned up within the construction site.

The athletic fields were then closed after PCBs at higher-than-acceptable levels were found in soil samples taken from a grassy area between the back parking lot and two fields.

Additional tests found PCBs exceeding "the most restrictive levels" along the right outfield line of softball field 5, where it borders turf field 4, the outfield of baseball field 2 and the west side of turf field 3.

About 75 percent of the PCBs detected to date have been located in the soil beneath the grassy area between the west parking lot and turf fields 3 and 4, officials said.

PCBs are synthetic chemical mixtures that were used in industrial insulation, hydraulic equipment and hundreds of other applications before being banned under the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Long-term exposure to PCBs has been linked to damage to the liver and immune system, as well as cancer.